Cornell rebuilding effort showing dividends

Patience has paid off at Cornell College where the men’s basketball team is off to its best start in school history. The Rams are 9-2 and returned the entire roster from last year’s team that finished fifth in the Iowa Conference race.

Fifth year coach Mike DeGeorge who has led the turn-a-round of the program says the team got pounded on quite a bit, but they kept at it and their confidence has grown as they’ve gotten more success. He credits a group of five seniors that have been the foundation of the program.

He says they had to play before they were ready, but hung in and finally started learning how to win games and have success. The Rams are off to a 2-0 start in the league race and host perennial power Buena Vista on Wednesday night. DeGeorge says Buena Vista has a great tradition of dominating the conference, and he says if they beat them it will be fun, if not they have to go back to work to get to that level.

DeGeorge believes a trip the Rams too overseas last year helped them get ready for this season. They went to Greece in May for 12 days and got to practice before that. He says it was a great bonding experience that helped the team to mature.